Former Boulder Meds owner Jay Epstein says Lopez caused him to lose business

Colorado's Attorney Regulation Counsel is investigating a misconduct complaint against Boulder attorney and Boulder County commissioner candidate Rich Lopez brought by Jay Epstein, the former owner of the Boulder Meds marijuana dispensary.

Lopez was representing Epstein when the city of Boulder rejected his application for a marijuana business license for "low moral character" last April and then rejected an appeal request because it contained incorrect license numbers and even the wrong business name.

Represented by a new attorney, Epstein sued the city last year in a bid to stay open and have his appeal heard. He was denied a restraining order that would have allowed him to keep operating, and, just this month, he was denied his last attempt to appeal his denial in district court.

Attorneys for the city argued at the time that they would have denied Epstein's appeal, even if it had been heard, but also that they had no obligation to hear the appeal because of the mistakes in the request.

"In my situation, I trusted an attorney who ended up, through errors of his own, costing me my business that I put three years of my life into it and my entire life savings," Epstein said. "The simplicity of it is what is so angering. It wasn't rocket science."

Lopez, a former Boulder City Council member running for the District 1 seat on the Boulder County Board of Commissioners, declined to comment on the allegations Friday.

John Gleason, the state's Regulation Counsel, said he cannot verify whether a complaint has or hasn't been filed unless a finding of misconduct is made, due to confidentiality rules.

However, documents shared with the Camera by Epstein show the office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, an arm of the Colorado Supreme Court that governs attorney licensing, has found sufficient cause to investigate Epstein's complaint.

"We now find that additional investigation is needed beyond the intake stage," Assistant Regulation Counsel Stephen Fatzinger wrote to Epstein last week. "Therefore, our office will be investigating the matter further."

Gary Jackson, a Denver attorney with DiManna and Jackson who specializes in representing attorneys accused of misconduct, said many complaints are found to be without merit on their face. Speaking generally and not about the dispute between Epstein and Lopez, Jackson said it's significant when the regulation counsel moves past the intake stage.

"If intake has the feeling there is some sort of unethical conduct, they'll transfer it to one of their investigators," he said. "If it goes beyond intake, there is sufficient evidence to think there is some sort of misconduct."

Misconduct can include conduct ranging from lack of diligence in representation or not communicating with a client all the way to fraud and dishonesty. The consequences can range from a private letter of warning to a diversion program that requires the attorney to take ethics classes and pay restitution all the way to disbarrment.

In 2010, the most recent year for which data was available, the attorney regulation board handled 4,089 cases through intake, of which 407 required additional investigation.

In his written response to the complaint against him, Lopez paints Epstein as an uncommunicative and difficult client who called him "in a panic" the day after the city's deadline for submitting new medical marijuana business license applications because he hadn't turned in his paperwork.

He also says Epstein failed to provide him with all his business license application numbers and that Epstein reviewed all paperwork before it was submitted. Epstein says he never saw any of the appeals until after he was denied.

In the Boulder District Court hearing last year about Boulder Meds' appeal, Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock said that Boulder would have rejected Epstein's application even if it had granted him an appeal. A Colorado Bureau of Investigation background check showed that Epstein had been arrested more than a decade ago on second-degree assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon.

However, a review of the case file shows that Epstein was never even accused, much less charged, with assault on an officer. The entry was incorrect.

Epstein later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in the case.

Epstein said that because of Lopez's actions, he never got a hearing on the merits of his claim and lost his business.

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